dirt patches and life with hope

I went to San Jose a couple of weeks ago, on Feb 9th. It’s just over a two  hour drive from Villa Nueva, east and south maybe? Directions are hard here with no square miles! We had lunch at a couple from the mission team, walked around San Jose a bit, drove up a small mountain overlooking the city, went to the mission team’s ‘central location’/guesthouse, and visited the new settlement, Haciende Verde (Green Farm). A long day! Here are some photos…

An old church in San Jose, built in 1748 by Jesuits from Spain. I’ve heard both good and bad things that have happened from them, but their missionary influence is still visible in the culture today, especially in music. Some tribes that are very isolated nowadays will play baroque music as part of their culture.

This is the temporary school yard in Haciende Verde. This, along with a couple plots of land, are the only things cleared so far. People have been working very hard to get this school ready to go in this new location, hopefully they can start in the next couple weeks. This school was originally in a colony.

The road going up the mountain. It was raining quite hard so I don’t have any decent photos, but you can see the condition of the roads and the RED dirt.

There are 5-7 families living in Haciende Verde, mostly living in old buildings (with no doors, dirt floors, and multiple families in a small space), and this is their shower space!

One building that is serving as a house for 2 or 3? families while they clear their land and build their houses.

This is kind of a mission centre/guest house. There was a meeting happening, I just crashed it.

The view from the drive going up the mountain. Raining quite hard so you can’t see much, but it was still absolutely beautiful!

It was quite exciting to see Haciende Verde. These people have been rejected by their communities, usually because of choosing to believe in Jesus, and this new settlement will provide a safe place to live, farm, do business, go to church and school FREELY. Some of them toured us around, and really all that’s there is bush and some dirt patches, but they were SO excited, saying “the house will be over there by the tree, and here we’ve planted a garden, and over here my son is digging a trench for putting in water, etc.” I wanted to grab a shovel or some bricks and just pitch right in. They have a vision for a new, hope-filled life, and it’s amazing. God is amazing.